The Lucy Man: The Scientist Who Found the Most Famous Fossil Ever - Softcover

Saucier, Cap

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1616144335 ISBN 13: 9781616144333

Verlag: Prometheus Books, 2011

Inhaltsangabe

This revealing biography, written for a younger audience of school-age children, describes Donald Johanson’s remarkable life and career. In 1974, Johanson discovered "Lucy" (Australopithecus afarensis)--the first skeleton of an upright-walking human ancestor that was mostly complete and well-preserved . Johanson went on to discover an entire group of Lucy’s species, called the First Family. He has also co-written nine books and narrated and hosted an Emmy-nominated television series. Today, he continues to give talks around the world, and remains dedicated to educating people about how we became human.

In some quarters, evolution is a controversial topic and so Johanson has devoted much time to helping people understand that human evolution is how we are connected by nature to all other life on Earth. The author presents details of the scientist’s work, not just in regard to Lucy, but also other significant fossil finds, with up-to-date information on the most recent discoveries. In addition, she discusses his personal life, including his disagreement with the Leakey family and the regrettable damage it did to their friendship.

As a longtime friend, the author had the opportunity to travel with Johanson and interview him on different continents, from America to Europe and Africa. For this book, he has freely answered questions and generously donated many of his own photographs to the project.

Beautifully illustrated with numerous photographs of the anthropologist at every stage of his illustrious career, this book will teach students about the fascinating study of human evolution and inspire some to go on to make the next great discovery.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

CAP Saucier (Cockeysville, MD) is a freelance artist, illustrator, and writer.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

THE LUCY MAN

THE SCIENTIST WHO FOUND THE MOST FAMOUS FOSSIL Ever! By C.A.P. Saucier

Prometheus Books

Copyright © 2011 C. A. P. Saucier
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-61614-433-3

Contents

Foreword by Dr. Donald C. Johanson...................................9Chapter 1: A Young Scientist in the Desert...........................13Chapter 2: Childhood in Connecticut..................................23Chapter 3: Chemist or Paleoanthropologist?...........................35Chapter 4: Scientist and Explorer....................................45Chapter 5: The Evolution of Monarchs and Mankind.....................67Chapter 6: Risks, Regrets, and Rewards...............................91Chapter 7: Don's Legacy..............................................101Chapter 8: The Future of Human Prehistory............................113Acknowledgments......................................................119Bibliography.........................................................121Index................................................................125

Chapter One

A YOUNG SCIENTIST IN THE DESERT

As the young scientist walked through the Ethiopian desert, he carefully watched where he put his feet so he would not step on something other than the sand and the stones. He was hot and tired with the noontime sun bearing down on him, and he was about ready to stop looking and return to camp. "Just one more gully to explore," he thought as he pushed himself to continue.

In that gully, the young scientist found what he had spent years dreaming of—a fossilized arm bone of a long-extinct hominin. Hominins are our ancestors, near-human animals who walked upright on two feet. It was November 1974 and discovering this arm bone marked the beginning of Dr. Donald C. Johanson's distinguished career as a paleoanthropologist, a scientist who studies human origins and evolution.

After finding the arm bone, Don looked around expectantly for more bone pieces. He began to wonder if the leg bone, and the pieces of a pelvis, jaw, and skull he was collecting could belong to one individual. If so, who was this creature? Whoever this used to be, Don realized that finding so many pieces of one hominin skeleton was a major discovery. Up until that time, no fossil skeleton of a human ancestor had ever been found.

Don called to one of his colleagues to come see what he had discovered. His colleague Tom Gray rushed over to share Don's excitement. Both were hot, sweaty, and dirty, but they hugged each other and jumped up and down in jubilation.

Everyone back at camp was equally excited and spent the evening celebrating by listening to a tape of the Beatles that included the song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds." After observing that the bones were in proportion to one another and that there were no duplicates, Don determined that all the bones did indeed belong to one individual. By the small size of the bones and teeth and the shape of the pelvis (hip bones), he knew that it was female. The next morning, the fossil from the desert originally designated A.L. 288-1 had a name—Lucy.

WHY LUCY IS SPECIAL

What is it about one set of bones that makes it more important than another? Lucy's bones have been examined, measured, scanned, and studied by a variety of scientists for many years now. Her skeleton is special because it is so complete that it tells scientists a great deal about her as our ancestor. Lucy was different from any hominin discovered before her and therefore represented a new species. Her bones have been dated at 3.2 million years old (by potassium-argon analysis, described in chapter 4), which made her the oldest and best preserved skeleton of an upright-walking human ancestor ever found until the 1990s.

Lucy was a small creature who was about three and a half feet tall. From her wisdom teeth—the larger teeth in the back of the jaw that only erupt in mature hominins—Don knew she was fully grown when she died. Her bones were in remarkably good condition; they had not been chewed on by a predator, such as a hyena. Don is not sure how Lucy died. There is one small puncture wound in one of her pelvic bones. She may have been walking along the edge of an ancient lake or stream, getting a drink of water, or collecting turtle or crocodile eggs to eat when she was suddenly attacked by a crocodile and drawn into the water. Lucy's body settled into the mud, preventing a scavenger from pulling it apart and scattering her bones. Gradually the minerals in the water turned her bones into stones. Being buried in the mud helped to fossilize her skeleton for it to come to Don's attention millions of years later.

Since he discovered Lucy, Don and other scientists have found other fossils of her species. In fact, in Ethiopia near where Lucy was found, Don and his team uncovered an entire group of individuals of all ages and sizes, adults and children, males and females, that they fondly called the "First Family." A scientist on Don's team found two fossil hominin teeth at the bottom of a hillside. Leg bones were seen higher up the hill. Because they were two right legs, Don realized that more than one individual was waiting to be uncovered. Site 333, as the hillside was called, revealed over two hundred fossil pieces representing thirteen individuals. These hominins were all lying close together, and there was no evidence of damage by hyenas. Don thinks this group died together in a catastrophe like a flash flood.

We now know certain things about Lucy's species. Males were much bigger than females; walking upright on two feet began well before brain size grew much bigger than that of apes; and stone tool use came even later than that. We also know that even though they were not yet human because of their small brain size, Lucy and her kind were the beginning of the social group we identify as the human family.

It took many years for scientists to clean, sort, and describe all the bones they found. But, like Lucy, the First Family members were on the way to being human because they walked upright on two feet. Paleoanthropologists have decided that walking upright is the first marker for becoming human. Early hominins may not have looked like us, but they are considered our ancestors because the changes of human evolution were beginning to take place.

Lucy defined both Don's past and his future at the same time. She represented his ancient human ancestor and the foundation for the development of his career. Don admits that his professional life has been a combination of luck and risk. He was lucky to glimpse Lucy when he was in the right place at precisely the right time. Any earlier than that exact moment, and she may still have been buried in the dirt; any later, and the torrential seasonal rains of Ethiopia might have washed her away. Don thinks he was also lucky that Lucy was given a name and not just a number. Most fossils are only numbered or identified according to where they were found. Having a cute woman's name bestowed a personality upon the fossil with which regular people could identify as a long-lost relative.

Don has no doubt that taking risks is an important part of being human. He took a huge risk traveling to Ethiopia as a young scientist with a brand-new doctoral degree. But he believed in his own intelligence and he trusted his ability. Africa was already known as the place...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Prometheus Books
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2011
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1616144335
• ISBN 13: 9781616144333
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 128
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Simon and Schuster Netherlands BV; info@simonandschuster.nl; ; Herculesplein 96; Utrecht; 3584 AA; Niederlande